TIPTON, Iowa — Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said on Sunday that his universal health care proposal would require that Americans go to the doctor for preventive care.

“It requires that everybody be covered. It requires that everybody get preventive care,” he told a crowd sitting in lawn chairs in front of the Cedar County Courthouse. “If you are going to be in the system, you can’t choose not to go to the doctor for 20 years. You have to go in and be checked and make sure that you are OK.”

He noted, for example, that women would be required to have regular mammograms in an effort to find and treat “the first trace of problem.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/02/AR2007090200743.html

His website says in effect you’ll pay lower premiums if you do as you’re told.

Ron Paul will get us out of the oil war. Romney, McCain, Huckelbee, Clinton, Edwards will not. As far as Iran, they either beat the war drum or talk about diplomacy, but what happens when diplomacy fails? They put on a show, pretending and hinting they will get us out, yet at the debates, they won’t commit - except for Ron Paul.

Electronic voting machines = Rigged. Write in your vote.

http://www.RonPaul2008.com

John Edwards is completely correct. We should all hope he is the next President of the United States.

Edwards is correct in condemning insurers for overriding medical decisions , but we must be careful, because the proposed cure may be worse than the disease. Edwards’ mandatory health care proposal would put the government even deeper into our personal lives, even criminalizing our “failure” to behave like properly trained sheep and visit the doctor when big government says, or eat the food big government says is good for us, or act like proper little worker-ants in the service of his neo-soviet scheme. I am an old man. I remember Adolph Hitler coming into power with promises of peace in the streets, the end of foreign corporate hegemony, abolition of inherited wealth, free health car, free college tuition for the poor, and other promised benefits of National Socialism (young people today forget that the acronym “NAZI” is a German acronym for Nation Socialist Worker’s Party, and the nazi’s were leftists, not right wingers.) I also remember the rise of communism in China, Cuba, Cambodia, all with promises of benefits to workers that all led to people being herded like sheep while government abuses went unchecked. Edwards, Obama and their ilk appeal to Americans who are looking for a nanny to tell them how to live, and who are willing to sell themselves into slavery for a hot meal and govt. “benefits”. Is this why we fought for liberty? Is the greatest generation to be followed by the “meek surrender” generation? God help us all.

Well, Well, Well!
Has SOMEONE FALLED DOWN THE “WELL?”
I THINK YOU KNOW I HAVE A STARNGE SENSE OF HUMOR!
SO: Think about the Boston “TEA PARTY!”
Was it “NOT” about “TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION?”
SO: We Get ALL the REPRESENTATIVES FROM MASS.
Who by the way, show us their …Willingness ness to TAX the rest of the Country … ?
I ALSO REMEMBER MY “OATH” OF SERVICE FROM WHEN I JOINED, NOT DRAFTED IN 1968!
IT WAS TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION FROM “ALL” ENIMIES” – FOREIGN and DOMESTIC!
WILL WE GET A CANDIDATE THE WILL REMEMBER THEIR OATH OF OFFICE?
SO FAR IT’S BEEN THE KAT’Z AND JAMMER KIDS, JOE PALOOKA, BOZO AND HIS BIG TOP
FRIENDS ALONG WITH ALLY OOP!
ON THE OTHER SIDE, GENERAL BULL MOSE AND “IF IT’S GOOD FOR GENERAL BULLMOOSE,
IT’S GOOD FOR THE USA”. DOGPATCH, LIL ABNER’S AND DAISY MEA’S! WHO CAN’T KEEP THEIR
DRAWER’S ON: SOMEONE TELL THE BRITINY SPEARS AND PARIS “THE HILTOON” LET’S MELTDOWN
ON, TV CROWD TO GET SOME SYMPATHY, IS SIMPLY PATHETIC BY MA AND PA KETTLE STANDARDS!
!
THE PUBLIC MEANING YOU AND “ I “ ARE SCREAMING FOR “POGO” TO DRAIN THE SWAMP!
WE HAS MEET THE “ANY-MEEEEE AND IT IS U.S.! GIVE ME MY OLD GLORY AND OLD IRONSIDE’S
NAME-FOR GOSH SAKES! STOP WITH THE LOONY-TOON’S AND GET BACK TO BASIC’S –
THE GOOD OLD CONSTITUTION!
HELP! HELP! THEY ARE TYING ME TO THE RAILROAD TRACK’S SCREAMED PU-LOSIE’S AND THE TEAM!
AND THEN, ALONG CAME…………………………..FRED!
TAKE THE BALL MR THOMPSON, BEST MAN AND ALL THAT CHAP!
I THINK WE ARE DONDE WITH THE CHAPAQITE IT CROWD! (SIC) EM ROVER!
THEIR DAY IS (OVER!)
GO FRED…………………………………………………GO!

Has anyone remembered that Mr Edwards is a plaintiff counsel? He made big money personally, fighting “big bad corporations”. Do you really think those corporations didn’t pass that cost along to each and every one of us? I agree that the cure may be worse than the problem - the slide into socialism is growing steeper. We only have to look to England and Canada to see where that will lead us. Americans who will sacrifice freedom for safety have lost our founding father’s will to be independent. I don’t see any of the candidates, on either side, that have the strength of will to lead this country.

Though I Do, Like McCain, I’m For Fred. So Far. But, I Reserve the right to change my mind.

After, listening to the candidates, and Let’s be Honest! Taking them, at their “WORD?”

Word’s do matter and So, DO Action’s!

THINK ABOUT ALL THE HISTORY OF YOUR NY STATE SENATOR, HILLY? SHE CALLED FOR THE
“IT’S TIME TO BRING UP THE PAST”, AND YOUR STATE FELL FOR IT…I MEAN VOTED FOR IT!

(Well, Let’s See Change?
and it’s Time to bring up the Past?)

O.K. HILLARY!
WHITEWATER, RUBY RIDGE, WACO TX, ELIAN AND JANET RENO, BUT YOU CAN TAKE THE HIGH GROUND? HER FUNDRAISER IN JAIL FOR THE CHINESE CONNECTION, AND AL GORE THERE TOO? MARK RICH? MORE-ON ON MOVE-ON, AND ALL THE REST OF THE DIRTY TRICK’S SQUAD,

TAKE THE NEXT MAGIC BUS, AND THE GRANOLA PABLUM PC-BS, MS AND PHD’S BACK TO YOUR NICE NY STATE HOME AND WHINE TO YOUR HUSBAND ABOUT HOW MEAN YOU ARE BEING TREATED ON THE CAMPAIN TRAIL. OH THAT’S RIGHT, HE IS SUPPOSED TO GET OUT THERE AND WHINE FOR YOU!
WAG HIS TAIL, OOOPS! I MEAN FINGER!..OOPS AGAIN…I’ MEAN TAKE THE MORAL HIGH GROUND!
DANG!…….DOES THIS THING WORK?…”THUMP SUMTHING….BANG!
CLATTER…CRASH…..AND - BURN THE HOUSE DOWN!

OK SHE’S RIGHT! BRING UP THE HIS-STORY..OR HER-STORY, JUST DON’T GET HISORICAL!
I DON’T THINK YOUR STATE, NY AND THE REST OF THE 48 OUT THERE, ALONG WITH :

THE REAL LEFT BANK! “CALIFORNIA”, INCLUDING “ARNO” ARE WITH THE TIMES”…OOPS AGAIN!
I MEAN, CNN NEWS, I MEAN MSMSN WELL ONE OF THE ALPHABET SOUP CHANNEL’S AND THE AMERICAN PUND-NIT’S.

TRY PAYING ATTENTION TO THE REAL WORLD, IRAN, PAKISTAN, AFGANISTAN, IRAQ!
WEST BANK, PALISTINE, JERUSELEM AND SIRIA, TURKEY AND THE KURDS…
GUNBOAT INTIMIDATION BY “THE IRANIAN’S” - IN THE NEWS ON CNN, TODAY AND THE STRAIGHT’S OF HORMUZ. WHERE “THE” “OIL” FLOW’S THROUGH?

WHAT DO YOU THINK AL-JAZEERA IS SAYING? THIS; MORNNING? OR YOUR ALL AMERICAN BOY ADAM GAZAN? ANY NEW TAPE’S OUT THERE?

SPEAKING OF OUT THERE..TRY SEALING THE BOARDER, ASKING FOR AN ID, CHECKING THEIR GANG BACK GROUND TURN THEM AROUND AND SEND THEM BACK TO HUGO..THAT’S RIGHT “JUST-HU-GO!” AND TELL THEM TO TELL HIM..JUST SHUT-UP!

YOU MIGHT WANT’A START LIVING IN REALITY!
GET REAL, GET A GRIP!

also’ I-FOR,

I FORGOT, NORTH KOREA, CHINA AND OUR GOOD FRIEND PUTIN. PUTTERING AROUND WITH IRAN, DON’T THINK WE HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT GREAT BRITTEN OR FRANCE OR AUSTRAILIA, MAYBEE AUSTRIA THOUGH I DOUBT IT, THEY PROBABLY DIDN’T SEE THE MOVIE (THE MOUSE THAT ROARED!) EITHER.

BUT WE DO NEED TO ADDRESS THE DISPARITY SURROUNDING THE FOOD AND PRODUCTS IMPORTED TO THE U.S. FOR THE “SAFETY” CONCERNS AS WELL AS “NATIONAL SECURITY!”

AND THE TRADE WITH OUR SOUTH AMERICAN ALLIES, AND UNBELIVABLEY, THE WAR ON “DRUG’S?” OH!.. THAT’S PART OF SECURING OUR BOARDERS!

“FREE TRADE?” AND THE CORPORATIONS AND BIG BUSINESS TAX STRUCTURE, EXEMPTIONS. OFF-SHORE TAX SHELTER’S..HEY THEY ARN’T FOR ME! I HAVE TO PAY HIGHER AMT TAXES TOO! INSURANCE IS UP! CORPORATE PART IS DOWN THOUGH; THEY ARE SAVING MONEY FOR THE CFO’S GOLDEN UMBRELLA! AND, OFF SHORE ACCOUNT’S AND ACCOUNTANT’S. GOTTA BE EFFICIENT! COST PRODUCTIVE!

IS “DILBERT” REALY RUNNING THE COUNTRY? AS WELL AS, THE CONGRESS? AND, THE CORPORATIONS?

I SAY IT’S PAST TIME TO “JUST DOWN-SIZE THEM”

THROW THE BUMS OUT! OR THE AMERICAN MIDDLE CLASS!, WE WILL HAVE TO GO TO INDIA,
JUST TO FIND A JOB, GET MEDICAL PROCEDURES AND COST EFFECTIVE MEDICINE, THOUGH! NOW THEY WON’T TAKE AMMERICAN CURENCY. AND THE DOLLER IS DOWN, SO EVERYONE WANTS EURO’S.

TAKE BACK AMERIKA! REMEMBER THAT MOVIE? OR “RED DAWN?” SOMETIMES IT SEEMS THERE IS A RELATION TO REALITY TAKEN FROM THE MOVIES, NOT THE ACTORS!
“THE CHINA SYNDROME”. ARE WE FINALLY MELTING DOWN?

GET REAL, GET ON BOARD THE LIFE RAFT’S NOW. HOUSTON, THERE “IS” A PROBLEM!

GO, FRED…………………………RUN THE RACE LIKE YOU MEAN IT.

SOMEBODY………ELVIS!….RICKY!!!!!!!!!!! HELP!

Edwards is nothing more than a fancified ambulance chaser.

Pretty low-budget one, too.

John Edwards tenaciously–identifies the serious problems with ALL insurance. The way insurer’s make money is through premiums of course–but their real profits come from denial of benefits, delaying of benefits, and refusal of benefits due to adminstrative/contractual details (late filing, improper diagnosis, or treatment not considered medically necessary).

Insurance companies provide a service–but they derive profit from not providing the services they are supposed to be providing. Shareholders–expect a continuing ROI, the only way to do this is by continuing to grow the number of claims which can be denied, plus other cost cutting initiatives (like outsourcing all of your call centers to India, Malaysia, and South America).

Because government subsidized healthcare is not profit-driven, by it’s nature it would be more of a servant to the insured (patient).

That said–only the government–can create and launch the necessary oversight to make sure insurance companies do the right thing. Outside regulation and oversight is the only way to ensure a fair playing field. There is a lot more the government can a should do–way short of taking control of the healthcare system entirely.

With all due repect for Mr Edwards, anyone who thinks a trial lawyer, who has made a huge personal fortune through medical malpractice, has the answer to any of our country’s problem must be crazy. Most of the problems we face today are the result of a legal system and the people(lawyers and politicians) that manipulate it for their own gain. I believe the voters of this country will see this guy for what he really is.

Not all lawyers manipulate the judicial/political system for personal gain. Some become lawyers in order to gain the necessary credentials and power to make advances toward protecting the defenseless and to fight just causes. John Edwards is a self-made millionaire, but along the way toward becoming a self-made millionaire he took the cases that virtually every other lawyer deemed as lost-causes, as un-win-able cases. These under-represented folks were usually poor and suffered great harm at the hands of physicians, insurance companies, pharmaceuticals. These folks struggled against a system that was stacked against them, often-times only with the silent power of facts and truth on their side–without the means to assert these vindicating principles against the injustices imposed by the powerful.

John Edwards may not have proposed a perfect health-care plan, but nor has any of the other candidates. Of course, we all know there isn’t any such perfect health plan–there will always be contingencies that defy careful planning and extenuating circumstances that require adjustments. Such is the nature of meeting the basic, collective needs of a large population. Certainly, any plan, will require ‘tweaking’. I say, let’s get a good plan that can serve as a foundation and then begin to adjust it to meet the needs of a dynamic society. Let’s stop using the notion of an imperfect plan as the basis for denying basic health-care.

John Edwards and Barack Obama… Our next president and vice president.

Craig

Here is some advise for anyone who currently derives their income from either healthcare or insuring people for healthcare costs. Listen up, especially all you doctors.

The middlemen (e.g. insurance companies) are reaming everyone else. If I were them, and were looking only to maximize quarterly revenue, I’d do the same. So long as healthcare providers fail to provide a risk hedging alternative to healtcare consumers, the leach middlemen are a necessary evil. If I were a doctor, I’d be seriously worried. Because the leaches (e.g. insurance companies) are reaming everyone, the average Joe is majorly angry and wants “change.” The average Joe typically has a pretty low economic IQ (no fault of his own, I blame the screwels and the general entitlement mentality of society at large). Therefore, the average Joe may just get duped into supporting Communism inspired centrally planned health care. If that happens, then, insurance companies lose all healthcare business and doctors will incur price caps (not to mention, bureaucratic heck). So, doctors, if you want to avert a disaster, you must organize yourselves and cut out the leach middleman. Then, after you have come up with a risk management and funding structure that just covers the costs of the risks (since you make your profits from healthcare, not from insurance), you can fire the middlemen and take all their customers away. Problem solved.

Craig,

Health care is not a right - it is a commodity. Individual may choose or not choose to purchase it. Has nothing to do with affordability. Affordability is directly related to risk.

Sure, Edwards may have taken “the tough cases” - that’s because the payout is higher. He’s an ambulance chaser, because he understands that the insurance companies are lucrative targets.

Everytime you cede personal responsibility to someone else (the gov’t) you give away part of your freedom.

The pathetic irony is that you libs spout all about choice, but freely relinquish your choices by advocating more tax and larger government.

Wise up and take responsibility for yourselves.

“the slide into socialism is growing steeper. We only have to look to England and Canada to see where that will lead us.”

————————————–

Yeah look at us in Canada and England….we really have it bad. We can go to the doctor whenever we want; we will never see a medical bill; we don’t have to even talk to an insurance company before surgery….it is dreadful.

Being able to walk the streets without worry of being shot is also horrible, not to mention our booming economy…

Geez, when will we ever learn?

Skies11:

You are mistaken if you or anyone else thinks I am abdicating my freedoms, liberties or civic responsibilities. The fact is, I expect to pay for my health-care, and I do not expect the government to dictate to me what I will and will not do. The point I was making is simple: let’s get a plan and begin to fine-tune it so that we can provide an umbrella for those who cannot provide the basic health services they need and deserve. At no time have I suggested that health-care is a right. It isn’t. However, let’s be humane: health-care is a moral responsibility.

I do not confuse the notion of personal responsibility with a refusal to help others receive basic care. I accept my responsibilities–wholeheartedly! I also accept that others may need services that they themselves are incapable of providing. I’m not talking about lazy people; I’m talking about people who for reasons beyond their control are incapable to providing for themselves and/or their families.

Children are a good, albiet, extreme example. In our current system, many children are denied health-care, even if their parents do not make enough to pay for health insurance. Many people who have health insurance cannot get the insurance companies to pay for services which were thought to be covered (and in most cases–these denied benefits ARE covered yet still denied–I know–my daughter was caught up in such an insurance fraud, however I have the wherewithals to fight and win). Personal responsibility you say? Loss of freedom, you say? Neither I nor many other Americans accept that kind of talk. We understand where the failures are; we are not so glib to reduce the problems with quaint cliques and shallow admonitions.

The real irony here is that such reductionist thinking that you propose does nothing to address the problems. It is too self-centered. Get your head out of the sand and face reality! Take responsibility, not just for your actions and your ideas, but also for your moral obligation to others. A free society IS a community–to truly take responsibility means you must accept responsibility for what is in the interest of the WHOLE community.

Craig

Craig

Balk is right. Canada is not only safer for its citizens and residents, but it also provides unfettered medical services–on demand. Whoa, what a concept: getting medical services when you need it without having to bleed all over the paperwork while you wait to be admitted. Those crazy Canadians…

The fact is, I can personally attest to both the quality and ease of access to medical services in Canada. I happen to have the great benefit of living there for three years (I still wonder why I left!). During my residency, I did require extensive medical services. Not only did I get the services, but it was rendered without a hitch. Say what you want about universal medical services, but keep in mind that there are 47,000,000 Americans who don’t have insurance to pay for their services. And, in most US communities it is accepted practice in ERs to NOT turn away people in need. Guess who pays for these costs? Don’t you think that since we are already paying for it we may as well develop a sound, comprehensive plan that provides everyone with basic coverage? It really is a simple enough equation.

Universal medical services will go a long way toward reducing the incidence of needed catastrophic care. It enhances the general health and well-being of communities by providing preventive health care. It shifts the thinking from medicine as a reaction to an illness to healthy behaviors that promote well-being (good diet, exercise, periodic health checks, etc.).

Craig

No one in this country is denied necessary care - period.

Umbrella = government program = increased taxes = loss of freedoms

There are myriad benevolent organizations in this country that help disadvantaged people.

My moral obligation does not extend to abortions, cosmetic surgery, or subsidizing ne’er do wells. Rest assured, your “umbrella” is an intrusion on individual liberty whether you acknowledge it or not.

Last February, I had a slew of bloodwork done for the first time in five years — five years ago being the last time I could afford to do it. The doctor’s visits came to $160. The bloodwork was $680. I have paid off the doctor’s visits and over the past eleven months whittled the bloodwork bill down to $400. We have a $550 a month mortgage, a $150 a month electric bill, phone, car, the usual expenses, and our monthly income is about $2200 after taxes, with both of us working.

Unfortunately, the bloodwork turned up an abnormality in my thyroid function, which needs to be retested and diagnosed. I figure by this time next year, I’ll have paid off the last bloodwork bill and can afford to go back to the doctor’s to find out what’s actually wrong.

Has anyone read the details of his plan? I read that he wants to wrap it all up in conjunction with the IRS and let them manage membership and the details. You have to prove every year that you have coverage and with who and you will have to pay a portion of your coverage. The IRS will know EVERYTHING about you at this point.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want the IRS anymore involved with my life than they already are.

For goodness sake!! John Edward is a TRIAL LAYWER. He speaks all this propaganda against businesses who make millions when HE himself is a business making millions. His corporation is his law practice. He has made just as much money, if not more, than the richest CEO. He is NOT the average middle class american that he pretends to be. I can see him cowering under the desk in the oval office and waiting for an opportunity to snivel about some percieved injustice done to him and lashing out with another lawsuit. Great leaders don’t sit around and bitch and complain and demand reparations all day, they go out and fix things.

The Nataline Sarkisyan case is one of the very few cases where i might side with the provider decision.
Mostly though the insurance companies are largely crooked. They deny reasonable claims to their customers paying premiums, which is a breach of contract. Much of their overhead is paying lawyers & medical experts to figure ways to gyp their own premium payers. What a rip off.
Absolutely criminal when McGuire CEO of UnitedHeath Group walks away with 1.6 Billion dollars in stock options. Premium payers foot those bills.

IF [big if] one is going to provide health coverage either private or public then requiring that people have reasonable preventative checkups seems like a very minimal bar that protects both the provider AND the person.
It must be a two way street.
Requiring, mandating that people be involved in a for-profit system just strikes me as unethical & wrong. Either go all the way to universal care with reciprocal responsibilities or leave fools to pay for a messy out of control system if they choose.

I tend to support Edwards because he is a fighter against corporations who are using the government to twist an otherwise free market into an insider’s rigged game. It is what he does, almost by instinct. Perhaps he may go slightly over the line, but corporations are bankrupting this nation.
Obama is not a bad second choice. Hillary at present is so embeded with corporate interests she is a marginal 3rd choice, who i would at least consider Ron Paul as an alternative, athough probably voting for Hillary.

Add to that the really crooked Drug companies that practically dictate to congress what they want & profit gaming hospitals & the whole system is a disease in itself. it is more train wreck of crooked profiteering than a ‘health care system’ which i think is a euphemism at best.

Why all this hatred against corporations? Remember corporations provide jobs. When corporations fail, jobs are lost. “I never got a job from a poor man”. The demise of corporations should be the biggest fear going into this recession.

The bottom line is, all emotion aside, a universal health care system creates an infinite demand. The supply side (service provider) of the equation will not be able to keep pace with demand side (patient). From every sniffle to chronic condition people will demand medical attention. The cost of sustaining such a system cannot be measured, because by definition, demand is infinite.

Think your taxes are high now? Just wait and see what its’ really going to cost, and not only in monetary terms. The government will not control who is seen, for what and when. There will be no insurance or service provider competition. Medical personnel will eventually become government employees. Incentive to work hard to be the best provider (business person) will be, subsequently eliminated.

The quality of care currently available will decline. The government cannot do better what the private sector does, no matter the cost (except national defense, which would be an impractical endeavor for the private sector.

People aren’t leaving in droves for UK, Canada or elsewhere for care…on the contrary. And there’s a very good reason for that.

God help us. We’re becoming a spoiled needy whiny lot, aren’t we?

Here we go again.

A universal health care system does NOT create an infinite demand. The fact is that the health needs of this country are NOT being met. The demand already outstrips the level of service for-profit corporations wish to provide. The proof of this is evident in the decision-making process that determines eligibility for coverage. Insurance companies make decisions based on business practices rather than medical need (the doctors have less say about what is covered than does some administrative person).

The unfortunate reality is that there is a gulf separating those of us with good health insurance and those with inadequate insurance. This doesn’t take into consideration the 47,000,000 citizens who have NO insurance. Remember, the point I’m making is regarding insurance coverage: this is a financial consideration that can have a profound impact ona family’s budget.

A more serious consideration deals directly with our failure to provide everyone with the basic medical services each of us deserve. An earlier comment by Daphne demonstrates the impact of this failure. She deserves far better care than she is receiving. The shame is twofold: first, that such a thing can happen in the richest nation on the planet; and second, that we make excuses for not meeting this need. These excuses rely on the same rationale used by the non-medical administrators who deny insurance coverage for procedures our doctors recommend.

Some people want to belittle our moral obligations by depicting the effort to ensure adequate medical coverage for all people as a “whiny” thing to do. Somehow compassion is subservient to greed. I don’t know if these people are afraid to do the right thing, or, that they don’t want to do anything that may reduce profits. Either way, it is a terrible commentary on what motivates some people.

We will have some form of universal medical care. It may take some time, but it is inevitable.

Craig

Just before I read the above article I read an article about where the US ranks with industrialized nations in preventing treatable deaths in those under the age of 75. The study clearly states that the primary difference is access to health care. In this country those with insurance have access, those without insurance do not. I encourage everyone to read the article. The US ranks LAST in the study.

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSN07651650

The level of arrogance, greed and indecision in this country is literally killing our fellow human beings. John Edwards, more than any other candidate, recognizes that we all have a responsibility to resolve this situation.